I really like what you have done with the bar at the top. I, too, hate the gradient, and the coloured logo is a fine alternative. Excellent thinking with the keyboard, too. A lot of the other trouble has been addressed in the redesign, but you have a good eye for this stuff. I look forward to seeing you pull apart 2007.2!
Bye, -Dylan McCall On 9/23/07, Dani Anon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi > > I was thinking on getting an openmoko when it's done and probably > developing a couple of apps but before that I think there is a big > problem with the current graphic design so I thought I'd contribute a > mockup and some thoughts. If such contributions are welcome I'd be > willing to mockup the remaining interface elements under CC free for > any usage. Note that I don't have an openmoko yet so I just took an > screenshot of the website (the one I found to be more complete > widget-wise) and remade it. You can see both here in this png I've > uploaded to imageshack: > It's work in progress, I didn't bother to do the full reflection > treatment to the icons, and the little ideograms are pretty poorly > done, a lot of other things also need to be fixed, but it's enough to > get us started: > > http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4728/ommockupexportaf2.png > > Now some comments about the differences: > > - The current design has too many different styles all over the > interface, there are a lot of different backgrounds, styles of > buttons, sliders, etc. In my proposal there's only one background > (that gray gradient bitmap) that is used in every "input area". For > background as the "content area" I use simply white, and the only > exception is the black status area on top with the notification icons. > Using less bitmaps not only gives you a better looking design but it > simplifies development and theming, this is very important. > > - You are using non-white colors for background of the content areas, > which gives you a text contrast of 80%. This is no good, as a mobile > device is commonly used outside and visibility (contrast) is no good > to start with, so we shouldn't have anything less than 100% contrast > for variable content, i.e: black over white or white over black. > Things that the user is familiar with like symbols and titles of > programs and headers are ok not having 100% contrast since the user > already knows the captions. > > - I understand that you are using the same non-gray color through the > interface (orange) to get some coherence. This can be a good idea to > avoid making bad color choices but we can do better and get: > a) better usability. using different colors for different categories > of things is a universal and accepted way of improving usability > (think of traffic lights and signals). You shouldn't avoid this > resource. > b) better experience. The same color all over the interface can get > boring quickly! > > - Keyboard layout. You are wasting space right know, the same keyboard > can be arranged to take advantage of 100% of the width of the screen. > The new layout gives you 20% more horizontal space resulting in more > accuracy. I'm not sure at all about having backspace and enter in that > place, that particular detail is just the first thing I came up with. > > - You have a lot of padding and margin where you don't need it. As a > result of removing those unnecessary details I have saved a lot of > space. Yes, padding and margin is good wherever we have an interactive > button that would need to be pushed, to avoid errors, but we really > don't need it for non interactive items if we design properly. > > - My key buttons are now language agnostic, "del" has been replaced by > just the backspace symbol and "enter" has been replaced by the enter > symbol. The color of the buttons provide another clue about the > function. This way the same bitmaps can be used in any language > configuration. > > - (strictly design problem) I didn't like the horizontal gradient on > top, really took my attention toward the left, I felt it was a > problem. > > - The proposed layout of the keyboard is more similar to a real > keyboard, in the current design Z is right on top of S for example. > There is space at the right of L that could be used for an ntilde (Ñ) > for spanish speakers or a cedilla (Ç) for french speakers depending on > the configuration. > > - You didn't need to surround the clock on top by a border, the format > XX:XX is easily recognizable already as an independent item, and by > removing the border you can have a bigger font size that makes it easy > to read. > > - Speaking of font sizes notice how by removing unnecessary elements > now I have bigger font sizes everywhere that make everything easier to > read. > > - The orange glow to indicate selection of an item: it's a cool idea, > but unfortunately there's little contrast between orange and white > (remember this is a cellphone so we need a lot of contrast). Contrast > between yellow and black is 65%, contrast between the current orange > and white is 43%. Contrast between a selected cell and the cells above > and below also helps, that's why I've removed the glow. A plus about > yellow is that it is intuitively recognized as the most used color to > highlight stuff. Contrast figures are approximate since I don't know > the gamma values of the device in question. > > - Since I don't have an openmoko yet I didnt know what the area on the > bottom of the screen (I think it must be a read only buffer) is for > so I haven't mockuped it. > > - Also I don't know what's the thing at the right of the search button > so I didn't include it. > > That's all, and excuse my English, I have work to do so I really don't > have time to proofread me. And btw, about the physical design of the > device, obviously it can also be improved, so when you start the next > neo it would be great if you told the community so we can contribute > ideas. And props for the project, as this was very much needed. > > Dani > > _______________________________________________ > OpenMoko community mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community >
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